Don't believe the trailer

Rating: 9/10 (9 August 2005)

I've heard a lot of people saying they're going to pass on seeing "The Island" because they saw the trailer and thought it looked stupid. Believe me, the trailer is stupid but the movie is not. This is a movie that is both thought-provoking and filled with intense action throughout.
The acting is pretty near top-notch. Sean Bean is, of course, a master of being quietly evil. Ewan McGregor can't quite pull off an American accent, but he can convincingly sound like an American trying to imitate a Scottish accent, which I thought was good. In both of his roles, he's excellent. On one side, the naive but courageous child-in-an-adult-body, on the other side, the millionaire playboy. Scarlett Johansson didn't have to deal with the same kind of duality, but she also pulls off the naive-but-courageous thing well.
The action scenes in this film were jaw-dropping. The car chase through whatever big city they end up in (I forget where it was supposed to be) was one of the most amazing I've ever seen, in which an exceptional amount of stuff got smashed up in a very spectacular way (think lots of very heavy pieces of metal colliding with speeding cars). I guarantee the action scenes here will have your heart racing.
I only have a couple of complaints - they're really only nitpicks that probably won't matter to other people. The first is the constant, relentless product placement. You'll notice that every car in the movie, with exceptions I can count on one hand, is a Chrysler 300, mostly with modified grilles. The MSN Search thing also bothered me. The other thing is the use of fat black people for comic relief. It happens twice. I admit the time with the construction worker was quite funny, but still.
The plot, while not original, involves an old ethical debate that is explored in an interesting yet somewhat biased way. It'll set you thinking, if nothing else. It even makes the ending scene, which would otherwise be painfully corny, moving, or I might even say powerful.
Don't believe the trailer for "The Island". If you want to see a great action movie that isn't totally mindless, go see "The Island".